Saturday, January 9, 2016

A lot of worth-reading political news and opinion

Friday I had Physical Therapy in the morning, and event with Sen. Ron Johnson in the afternoon and a family dinner/shopping in the evening, hardly got near the computer. I have some upcoming medical procedures and some personal/political commitments, so, alas, a lot of email will be deleted unread in next week. Sorry. Try to keep it to important stuff. ~Bob

Book Recommendation:The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters by Karl Rove

Though I'm a Republican, I have mixed feelings about Rove and probably would not have bought this book. But my brother Tom gave it to me for Christmas--I'm glad he did. It is well-written, very balanced, and the researching and sourcing would do credit to a professional historian. Part bio of McKinley, part political history/analysis of the gilded age, the campaign of 1896 and the controversy over "Free Silver," this volume will be of interest to history buffs and political junkies. Given that McKinley was an abolitionist from his youth, served with great heroism in the war against the slave power, fought all his life for black voting rights and was supported by Frederick Douglas and other black leaders, it is ironic that the first Black president should have removed his name from the mountain, to rename it "the high one" in the native language. But then, McKinley was a Republican, so maybe it's not surprising, as the Democrat party continues to honor slave owners. Another irony is that McKinley is probably not as well known as William Jennings Bryan, the man he defeated in 1896 and again in 1900, an unknown who seized control of the Democrat convention with his "Cross of Gold" speech based on the promise of unlimited free silver coinage minted at a ratio of 16-1 with gold, so that debtors could pay back their debts with cheap money. Like borrowing enough money to buy a Cadillac and the government lets you pay the lender back with inflated money that will only buy a used Chevy. Bryan was rather the Bernie Sanders of his day, lesser known than Sanders but a better orator. The Democrats made many errors that helped McKinley. Some of the free-silver delegates were anti-Semitic, shouting slurs such as "Down with the hooked nose Shylocks of Wall Street" and "Down with the Christ-killing gold-bugs." (p-261). Silver Republicans and Gold Democrats bolted their parties, but the Gold Democrats did more damage. Bourke Cochran, an Irish-born former Democrat congressman, followed Bryan around refuting his arguments. He said a Bryan presidency would, "paralyze industry by using all the powers of government to take property from the hands of those who created it and place it in the hands of those who covet it." (p-307) Bryan said of Wall Street bankers, "We want to destroy the business in which they are engaged." It could be Elizabeth Warren today. McKinley speaking to factory workers, replied that "The man who would array the poor against the rich, labor against capital, classes against classes or section against section, is not a friend of the country. He is the enemy of the very best interests of every citizen." he created a new kind of campaign. the precursor of today's primary campaigns, and won a huge victory. So, yes, Rove is right--the election of 1896 still matters today.

Excerpt: Aristotle teaches that while we must love our friends, we must love truth more. Today, I am probably going to lose some good friends, which is painful. Nevertheless, my admiration for everything America was, everything modern civilization was, compels me to bite the bullet. Donald Trump may win the Republican presidential nomination. He may even be elected President of the United States -- stranger things have certainly happened recently. However, while his popularity is understandable, an essential question remains: Is Trump the kind of leader who might begin to restore a crumbled constitutional republic?

Excerpt: Things change fast in Benghazi,” we are told near the opening of Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, and the dynamism with which the film presents the events of September 11, 2012, makes the quote ring true.

Excerpt: The attacker, who was firing a stolen police gun, was taken into police custody and “confessed to committing this cowardly act in the name of Islam,” Richard Ross Jr., the city’s new police commissioner, said at a news conference Friday.

Excerpt: The FBI is investigating two trips alleged Philadelphia police shooter Edward Archer made to the Middle East, a spokesman told Fox News late Friday. Special Agent Eric Rouna said federal authorities are investigating a trip Archer made to Saudi Arabia in 2011 where the suspect spent “a couple” of weeks. Authorities are also seeking more information about the several months Archer spent in Egypt in 2012. (Mass Media finally shows picture of dude who shot policeman in Philly--and he's black and claims to be Muslim. But let's not blame anything in their religion for this guy's actions. --Barb)

Excerpt: As my colleague Ian Tuttle notes, this sexual violence is part of a “disturbing trend” in European countries with large Muslim-immigrant populations. Sweden now has the “third-highest rate of rape per capita in the world.” Britain’s horrifying Rotherham rape scandal — where 1,400 children were systematically raped and abused over a period of 16 years while authorities turned a blind eye — still shocks the conscience.

Support Multicultural Rape: New Year’s Eve sex assaults also reported in Finland, Sweden and Austria

Excerpt: In a speech delivered shortly before Thanksgiving, President Obama called upon Americans to welcome Syrian refugees, declaring that “Slamming the door in the face of refugees would betray our deepest values.” Unfortunately, that pious declaration seems not to apply to the thousands of Afghan and Iraqi allies we have effectively abandoned. If anyone is slamming the door in the faces of these refugees, it is the administration. (To be an ally of the Regime is to have a knife in the back and be deemed a tool to have been used. --Barb)

Excerpt: During the first call in the morning, Qaddafi told Blair, "The story is simply this: an organization has laid down sleeping cells in North Africa.... The sleeping cells in Libya are similar to dormant cells in America before 9/11," The Telegraph reports. In the second call, a few hours later, he added: "I will have to arm the people and get ready for a fight. Libyan people will die, damage will be on the Med[iterranean], Europe and the whole world. (Yes, Qaddafi knew too much of the Plan and had to go...including, per this article, about 9/11. Hillary demanded his death and Obama agreed and "rebels" caused it. Right. Reportedly, HC and POTUS set up the "Arab Spring" to build the caliphate and begin WWIII. Wonder what side US on folks? Now you know why USPS issuing Muslim stamps and your kids are learning "Allah is great!" in school with Common Core. There are also videos on YouTube of Qaddafi speaking about Obama's "rebels" that were infiltrating Libya and working with Al Qaeda. --Barb)

Obama and guns: Eleven false or misleading claims from the president's remarks this week

Excerpt: Unfortunately, the president’s remarks had a large number of errors. Here are 11 of the false or misleading claims that the president made.1. “But we are the only advanced country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence erupt with this kind of frequency....

Excerpt: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is ahead of Hillary Clinton by a 50-37 percent margin among New Hampshire Democratic primary voters, while former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley receives three percent support, in the latest Fox News Poll. (Iowa and NH voters have a lot of power as the first primary states. And they are states with relatively few minority voters. Time for a #BlackVotesMatter movement? ~Bob)

If you need any further convincing (and don’t have a weak stomach). Look at what a GUN FREE Zone looks like when it is attacked…

This is the theatre in Paris. THIS is what a disarmed society looks like. THIS is what law abiding citizens who turn in their weapons so the government can protect them looks like. Don’t let this happen to YOU! Think before entering a “Gun Free Zone”!

Excerpt: Corban’s story did not exactly have a happy ending — or, at least, the ending is ever-evolving. Though her assailant is now serving 24 years to life in prison, she struggled with depression, PTSD and stress-related seizures. And, speaking about her experience, she came to realize how important it was for women to have access to guns to protect themselves. Then, Thursday night on national television, she got to confront the man she thought wanted to take her guns away: President Obama.

Excerpt: I have written extensively about the multifaceted ways our mental health care needs to be rebuilt—including legislation that would need to be put in place to do it. The fact is that our mental health care system’s safety net has been torn apart, such that even people who freely admit that they are considering harming others are not given comprehensive care, including ready access to psychiatry visits, medication and hospitalization....Mandating that clinicians report that certain patients should not have guns in their possession is a blunt instrument that could be used to deprive tens of millions of Americans of their fundamental Second Amendment rights. (Obama began demanding a mental evaluation of every patient EVERY TIME THEY ENCOUNTER a healthcare worker, whether qualified to make mental health assessments or not and it is being added to each person's electronic medical record permanently. It is SO IMPORTANT for each one of us to examine what is in our health records; typically they are either now done by computer-tick menus and edited by swamped MDs/PAs themselves or by those who work cheaply in foreign countries. Note that his mental evaluation was never released on his annual physical. US citizens do not realize the Regime has been mandating mental assessments of them entered into records by those who may not be qualified to do so for YEARS. Years, folks. It used to be a mental health physical was done only for those being admitted for psychiatric care; now every patient visit, ER visit, urgent care visit...you are assessed. --Barb)

Excerpt: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was recaptured in western Mexico after a shootout that left five people dead, the culmination of a manhunt that began when he tunneled out of a maximum security prison more than six months ago.

Excerpt: Changes of administrations usually mark dicey times in American foreign policy. But transitional hazards will never be greater than in 2016. Over a span of just a few months in mid-1945, new president Harry Truman lost all trust in Soviet Union strongman Josef Stalin — in a way that Truman’s predecessor, the ailing Franklin Delano Roosevelt, never had during nearly four years of World War II.

Mabus has decreed the end of separate Basic Training for men and women in the Corps. We know what this means, since we know what happened to the other services when they "integrated" training. Everything got "adjusted" so that the women could keep up with the men. And they instituted the "time out" cards for trainees, so they could yank it out of a pocket and get 5 minutes of rest and freedom from any input by DIs. This has done just wonderful things for the people taking the training. God help us if we ever have to go to a real war with this kind of stupid crap going on. This is nothing short of absolutely terrible. Civilians with infinite arrogance and bottomless ignorance are dictating to the military and have done very serious damage. We can only pray that in 2017 a new President will appoint someone to be SecDef who is ex-military and who will start the long, slow process of getting back to the right, effective, and in the long run, safest way to train people and lead people in the ugly business of war. S/F --Del. You can be sure that none of the political or media elites lobbying for this will be sending their daughters or sons into the military combat arms. ~Bob

Excerpt: Last Wednesday, The Washington Post made a shocking revelation about accused rapist Bill Cosby. It revealed that in 2000, he endorsed current Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s run for the U.S. Senate. Given his previous endorsement, it seems very likely that he might endorse her again, especially given the many similarities he shares with Hillary’s husband, Bill Clinton.

Excerpt: Since at least 1950, all but two public mass shootings in America have taken place where general citizens are banned from carrying guns. In Europe, there have been no exceptions. Every mass public shooting — and there have been plenty of mass shooting in Europe — has occurred in a gun-free zone. In addition, they have had three of the six worst K–12 school shootings, and Europe experienced by far the worst mass public shooting perpetrated by a single individual (Norway in 2011, which from the shooting alone left 67 people dead and 110 wounded). Mass killers have even explicitly talked about their desire to attack gun-free zones. The Charleston, S.C., church shooting in June was instead almost a college shooting. But that killer changed his plans after realizing that the College of Charleston had armed guards.

Excerpt: On January 15th, the Marine Corps is required to submit a plan to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on how they’re going to make boot camp gender neutral.

Their proposed plan must also apply to OfficerCandidateSchool, as well as include a method on how to make titles gender neutral for Marines. The Marines, who have never done a co-ed boot camp since their establishment in 1775, are undergoing quite a dramatic shift, and the Independent Journal Review wanted to know how they felt about such a major announcement. U.S. Marine veteran, Captain and Counterintelligence officer Eric Kirsch didn’t hold anything back: (Capt. Kirsch is now "dead man walking", we will next witness just how fast the Corps lawyers can fall on him like an old building, a big one, and drum him out of the Corps ASAP. God bless him, I guess he just couldn't take it anymore and was unable to stop himself from blowing his cork on Facebook. Everything he writes is of course valid, if expressed somewhat sharply, but that's just real Marine talk. I wish him well in whatever career he will be moving to next. Semper Fi indeed. --Del. May already be a civilian. ~Bob)

Excerpt: But the truth is more complicated than that. I am a black man of mixed race heritage, and while every black member of my family has encountered racism, we are also the ones in the family who hold graduate degrees, own businesses and travel abroad. My black father, born in 1937 in segregated Texas, is an exponentially more worldly man than my maternal white Protestant grandfather, whose racism always struck me more as a sad function of his provincialism or powerlessness than anything else. I don't mean to excuse the corrosive effects of his views; I simply wish to note that when I compare these two men, I do not recognize my father as the victim. ... Like a piece of paper that is both red all over and green all over, for far too many Americans of all backgrounds, the idea of a simultaneously black and advantaged person is impossible to imagine. This mental inflexibility points to a seldom discussed but nonetheless very frustrating aspect of being African American: well-intentioned people will insist you are a victim whether you interpret your life in such a way or not. Even in the most rarified financial, intellectual and cultural spaces, to experience yourself as something other than a person set upon is at odds with the assumptions people of all colors project.

First piece, first paragraph: must be the schools, can't be the kids or their parents; second paragraph: looking more like the parents, but can't say so. Liberal logic at its best, on public display. --GS

Excerpt: U.S. residents born in the country lost 320,000 jobs in the past two months while the number of foreign-born residents holding jobs in the country increased by 306,000. Another strong jobs report released Friday shows the economy added 292,000 new jobs in December. It also shows more foreign-born residents are working while fewer U.S.-born residents are working. (Transformation. Aren't you glad you voted for him? Kiss you job, your MD, your insurance, your life and your kids' lives goodbye, folks. Much to do in the last year...to complete the destruction. --Barb. Liberals criticized business for sending jobs overseas. Instead, better to bring overseas here to take the jobs--and vote. ~Bob)

NYTimes.com: Over 200 Members of German Choir Were Abused, Investigator Says

Excerpt: Over 200 Members of German Choir Were Abused, Investigator Says The investigator said he assumed that the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI knew of the abuse when he ran the Bavarian boys’ choir for 30 of the nearly 40 years covered by the inquiry. (As long as we're talking about Asians and North Africans on New Years Eve, we might as well equal it out with a story about the Catholic Church in Germany as well. --GS)

Will the Supreme Court undo the damage done to the rights of millions of government workers? By George F. Will

I'm not generally happy with people arming themselves and taking over federal buildings and talking aggressively about resisting. And there are some people in the West who truly are extreme, refusing to acknowledge any authority from the government. But it is also sadly true that federal bureaucracies seem to have double standards about how things go. For instance, it was the EPA that let several million gallons of heavy metal sludge out into the river system, something that would have had a corporation fined half their worth and maybe sent people to jail, but the consequences to the EPA were..... zero, nada, nichts, bupkis, nihil, like nothing, baby. People set small backfires and get hammered, official backfires go out of control over tens of thousands of acres and houses are lost, but that's OK? Abuse of authority and imposition of seriously excessive penalties have been the hallmark of federal agencies from time to time, not to mention just really stupid mistakes like Ruby Ridge and the Davidian slaughter. And it seems no one ever even gets a hand slapped. So while I wish the guys in Oregon handled their protest in a better way, I have to say they do represent a very legitimate set of grievances held by many citizens out there. I hope that this brings enough focus to get Congress to do something about it. (Of course, an Executive Order from the White House could fix it all in a second, but this is not on the priority list there.) --Del

Excerpt: A modestrecap: Roving bands of rape gangs are fanning out across Europe. In Cologne, one of the latter-day Vandalstaunted the police: “I’m Syrian. I must be handled in a friendly manner. Mrs. Merkel invited me.” Knuckleheads in Oregon have seized a wildlife refuge, and some on the left are angry they haven’t been summarilyslaughtered. The international economy is turning into one long “Buy Gold” commercial. President Obama has responded to a renewed terror threat and chaos in the Middle East by redoubling his efforts to keep the boom in gun sales and NRA donations going for the rest of his presidency. Donald Trump is concern-trolling Ted Cruz because other people might make a big deal about him being a Canadian sleeper agent. Joe Biden says, “My tank tops have a gun show loophole on each side.” He also said that he regrets not running for president, “every day.” A self-described “Peace Troubadour” who appears to have been raised on an ancient moron burial ground has announced he will hold a “peace concert” in ISIS-controlled Syria. Rumors that his face will grace the new Darwin Award Medal remain unconfirmed. If he goes ahead with the concert, I have a long list of performers he should bring with him. ISIS released a video showing them working with surface-to-air missiles, while we’ve apparently been shipping missiles to Cuba. Iran expedited its ballistic-missile program and the Obama administration threatened to do something about it but then chickened out. Saudi Arabia and Iran seem minutes away from open war with one another and President Obama’s advisers reportedly think his Iran deal is a source of “stability” in the Middle East (one has to wonder if they, too, were raised on ancient moron burial ground). Any day now we will give them somewhere north of $100 billion dollars – you know, for even more stability! North Korea detonated an atomic bomb (which may have been a hydrogen bomb). And Time magazine has already declared Donald Trump the winner.

But there is good news.

Worth reading: There's No Price To Pay For Defying America. BY CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Today as ever, in public life as in private, leaving no favor unrewarded and no offense unpunished is the key to respect and a rule of life that you neglect at your risk. --Angelo M. Codevilla, Advice to War Presidents. I've gotten to where I really hate seeing another article on current events and how bad things are. Yet it is the reality that is in our face whether we like it or not. The three areas Dr. Krauthammer talks about are all too real, all too dangerous, and clearly going nowhere but downhill. And that's without even getting into the extremely disturbing situation with the North Koreans steadily building a nuclear arsenal and missiles to deliver the bombs. On NPR this morning there was a discussion about what's going on with the Saudis and their allies facing Iran and their allies, and even in that normally slanted environment everyone agreed that the Saudis and others now figure they cannot count on the USA for anything, so they must start acting on their own in what they see as their interests. The war in Yemen is a mess, but the Saudis and friends figure it's up to them to keep the country from falling to the rebels who are supported by Iran. We don't have, haven't had, any remotely effective foreign policy for a long time now, and the effects are only too obvious and only too negative. But this is truly really important stuff for the nation, the world, the future, and here we are mostly backing out of the whole game. Except for various announcements and proclamations that don't add up to anything meaningful. It doesn't look like anything will change until a year from now, so we can only hope things don't slide too far down this slope to total disaster. Del

Excerpt: An inert U.S. Hellfire missile sent to Europe for a NATO training exercise in 2014 was mistakenly shipped to Cuba and has been there ever since. Though the missile does not contain any explosives, The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. officials are concerned that Cuban authorites may share the missile's sensors and targeting technology with countries like Russia, China and North Korea. Several people familiar with the case told the Journal that the incident is the worst example of sensitive military technology falling into the hands of a nation under U.S. sanctions that they can recall. (Right up there with giving drone technology to Iran. But let's worry about destroying the 2nd Amendment to "save the folks" and push for blacks to kill police. Another policeman attacked in Philly last night. Shot at 13 times. Survived. Mass Media saying "Don't know the motive." Expunged reporting, typical. --Barb)

Excerpt: A town hall event with President Barack Obama set to take place at George Mason University on Thursday is closed to students and the general public, according to an email sent to students by a university administrator....University spokesman Michael Sandler told TheBlaze that the town hall on guns is “planned and hosted by CNN” and that the school’s “only role” is to “provide the venue.” (Psychodrama, staged for hype by CNN, Regime mouthpiece, red/black insignia. --Barb)

Excerpt: The project that became known as Fast and Furious began in November 2009 and took place out of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) office.Gun-buyers, many of whom the feds suspected were criminals, were permitted to take firearms purchased in the U.S. and walk into Mexico without interference from agents; the intention was that once the guns were sold to powerful drug cartels, the ATF would later trace the firearms. Whistleblowers and investigators, however, found no attempt to trace the guns. (Congress began to get documents in 2014 after Holder's stonewalling and contempt of Congress, for which no punishment ensued. How many folks lost their lives in US and Mexico thanks to Obama and Holder's little project (also tried by Bush) to push for gun control? Do not believe the "tears" unless they were for joy at what he believes he can accomplish with no one to uphold any law, destroying the hated Constitution and the US. --Barb)